laurieopal

It's one of the best things I've done and it felt like it was taking forever, especially some of the technical work. The fine carving took a lot of time and it was a pleasure.

It was made in 5 components and I've got photos of them below after the finished sculpture. The components are as they were unpolished and just cast, since they can't be polished until after they are assembled and soldered.

There are three dragons, one on the left side near the emerald, the large one on top with a black spinel eye, and the one swimming in the ocean. There is also a mermaid (only her tail shows) and a water snake.

The text is from a 17th century map and says "HC SUNT DRACONES". The faceted stones are 4 emeralds (on the side pieces) and the black spinel in the large dragon's eyes. The three continents are cabochon Maw sit sit jade (jade-albite) from Burma, and the small archipelago is lava, moonstone, and garnet cabochons. I am _thrilled _ with how well this design worked out.

The sculpture is sterling and is 6" wide by 5" high. It's from the collection of Bayla Fine.

Top Dragon

..
HC SUNT DRACONES

Side Pieces with Dragon Will Have Emeralds

Assembled

(cross-posted on livejournal as laurieopal)

When I was in Iceland last June I saw a low lying plant with white cotton like puffs. It's a hard land for growing things and these seemed, relatively speaking, to be flourishing. I was very taken with how they looked and tried to find out their names in English. I carried a sample with me but even people very fluent in English couldn't tell me the name.

Fortunately I found a really good book on Icelandic plants before I left and discovered it was called woolly willow. And that I had seen the very early spring stage of the plant.

The name is a bit of a tongue twister for me to the amusement of my friends.

I very much wanted to make a pendant design using woolly willow. I decided to make the pendant with a lava beach stone that I gathered on a very rainy beach on the Snæfellsnes peninsula.

The pendant is lava and pearls. It's silver and approximately 1.75 I'm showing it at this size so the fine detail in the lava is clearer in the photo. It's very clear in reality.

It's from the collection of Tracy Schmidt.

There were a number of other plants, mostly micro flora, that I found exceptionally beautiful in Iceland. I expect that some of them will be showing up in my future work.

I've been looking at the lava stones I gathered in Iceland and the Baltic amber from Finland. And I've been thinking about how they are shaped by fire (lava) and water (Baltic amber). I'm finding this a mixture of exciting and fascinating.

I have some jade from Monterey that comes from the ocean and is shaped by the water. It's a lovely soft green. And I have some soft blue white beach glass that Nalo Hopkinson gave me.

I have them spread out on a table and I'm thinking about designs and what it means to work with stones that are shaped by the elements.

I've made three necklaces for Worldcon from lava beads that I got in Iceland. This one is made with flamboyant pearls and antique Chinese beads from the 19th century that are made to look like bone or ivory. Pearls are far more lustrous and vivid then the photo. As I said earlier, I'm really liking working with the lava. I'm bringing 2 snapshot photos with me to show some of the places that I gathered the lava.

This is a necklace that took a very long time to finish. I've written about it before. It was made with the two antique Thai earrings that Tracy Schmidt brought back from a trip to Thailand. The earrings themselves are stunning. Creating a necklace that would be both a very strong design in it's own right, and still focus on the earrings was a good challenge. I am _very_ happy with the completed piece.

All the pieces are carved with a peacock feather design that is an interpretation of the design on the earrings. Many of the links are set with small diamonds. The earrings are held in bands that are riveted and set with small diamonds. This enables the earrings to be removed without changing anything about them and was a design challenge all by itself.

The level of detail is not very photographable but I think this image gives a sense of it.

This is definitely my last post before I leave for Worldcon. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone.

As I go over this I keep fining more typos. I still have a lot to do and my brain is tired. Please excuse the one's I've missed.

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I'll have both of these at Worldcon. Both pendants are in sterling and are about 1.5" to 2".

I'm bringing 2 velvet bags to Worldcon. One with the oceanic shaped polished Baltic amber pieces and one with lave I gathered in Iceland. Ask mei f you're there and you'd like to see them.

Amber and Icelandic Spar (double prismatic). the rainbows don't show in the photo.

Lava, sunstone and diamond. Lava is blacker in the original.

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Entries tagged with lava

Finally Fantasy Map Sculpture!

Woolly Willow from Iceland

Shaped by Fire and Water

Lava Necklace and Antique Thai Earring Necklace

Lava, Amber, Icelandic Spar Pendants

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April 2024

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